The Struggle Over Rafsanjani’s Future Role
My last story,Published on Roozonline daily, Oct 10, 2005

While the purpose of last week’s announcement of the increase in the authority of Iran’s Expediency Council, a body that was initially mandated only to intervene and resolve differences between the Parliament and the elected Guardian’s Council comprised of conservative clerics, was to curtail the excesses of the new hardline government lead by Mahmud Ahmadinejad, it has also put Hashemi Rafsanjani, the current head of the Expediency Council who lost a presidential bid last June in addition to a loss in the elections to get into the Parliament six years ago, into the number 2 spot in Iran’s power hierarchy.( Countinue...)